Page 26 of Payne's Envy

It was a bad time for the heat within me to get out of hand again. Prudence and I were checking the area, ascending the human souls slain by the monster. She had materialized a mask because of the heavy smoke, but I wasn’t having difficulty breathing in it like her. It didn’t keep my sister from worrying.

The carnage should have quelled my arousal, but it didn’t. The tug at my chest was as steady as my heartbeat, trying to convince me to fade to Payne. No doubt he was helping my brother take out another one of thosethings.But it wasn’t only Payne my mind kept picturing. One moment the lust was all for my childhood crush, the next I saw the strange man from my dreams. Back and forth, the tug and arousal kept appearing for both. Payne. The dream man. Payne… The dream man. Payne with his orange veins. The dream man with his glowing veins, until they were one.

I inhaled sharply, trying to ignore the delicious pulse in my clit. To make it worse, Prudence kept questioning me, and I was so frustrated. When she continued bringing up how hot I was each time she touched me, I told her about the man from my dreams.

“It’s embarrassing!” I blurted.

“What is?” she asked.

“The fever, and what it’s doing to me,” I murmured, casting a glance toward Derrick to make sure he wasn’t listening. “Something’s coming for me. I don’t know what, but every night I see him in my dreams.”

“Joy, you’re confusing me. Who’s coming for you? Harvest? We won’t let that happen.”

“Not Harvest. This is something else. The man I dream about gave me thisfever!” I didn’t care what Melinda said. There was no way I should be blurring Payne and that man unless someone hexed me.

A rumbling sound caught my ear behind Prudence. Both of us materialized our blades.

“I heard something,” she whispered.

“Me too,” I murmured.

“I still hear it,” she added.

I heard the groans next, but saw nothing beyond the smoke at first. I spotted movement in the darkness and tightened my grip on my weapon. Were those birds? I saw objects moving through the fog. A steadyKa-thunk, ka-thunkpierced the air, followed by a weird smooshing noise that made me flinch. Something clunked together.

A whistle rang. Prudence narrowly dodged a hand flying toward her head.

“Was that an arm?” she asked.

An icky feeling of alarm slithered into my chest and throat as I saw through the smoke more clearly. Oh, Hades! It was limbs, toros, legs, heads, and thighs falling from the abomination.

“Prudence, the body parts!” I shouted. “They’re coming together!”

“To making something new,” Prudence finished.

No sooner had she spoken the words, the nothingness hit me. My thin blade vanished. My power. It was gone again.

Terror snaked through my limbs when Prudence began coughing. “Prudence!”

Without her powers, the mask she had created to block out the smoke was gone. She wouldn’t withstand the smoke without it. I didn’t understand why I was unaffected.

“My lady.” Dirk tugged on Prudence’s cloak. “What’s wrong?”

“Our powers disappeared,” she replied.

“And here I thought it would be difficult to steal one of Grim’s daughters.” Derrick chuckled as he sauntered toward us.“But Grim is fading away, and his children are becoming mortals. Harvest is going to love this bit of news.”

Chapter Thirteen

Joy

“I’ve been biding my time. Finally, my chance is here.” A snarl twisted Derrick’s features as he stopped in front of us.

“What are you talking about?” Wiping my face, I admitted I wasn’t surprised. I never liked Derrick. Something about him rubbed me the wrong way, but I hadn’t really liked anyone lately because of the heat, except Payne. I also trusted my dad, and he said the proxy checked out, but ignoring my instincts about the proxy had been my mistake. Once again, my need for Payne blinded me.

When my sister continued coughing, I worried for her. Yet, why wasn’t I bothered by the smoke? Even the proxy had a black layer of magic covering his mouth and nose. Did that matter when neither Prudence nor I had our powers? We were easy pickings for the proxy.

“Cover your mouth with something,” Prudence yelled, as she ripped her clothes and placed it over her face.

---